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COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS DAILY
By LINDA M. LINONIS
POLAND
Churches in Poland will gather Sunday for a community Thanksgiving service, a tradition in its fifth year.
The Rev. Michael Grant of Poland United Methodist Church said the event evolved as an idea suggested by clergy there.
“We wanted to do something more deliberate as a group of clergy and Christians,” he said.
The Poland churches also developed a Lenten luncheon series with speakers, a Good Friday service and outdoor service in the summer.
“We’ve progressively done more,” the Rev. Mr. Grant said. “I believe it’s great for the community and a blessing for the clergy to work together.”
Heritage Presbyterian Church will host this year’s service at 7 p.m. with a combined choir. Other Poland congregations participating are Church of the Rock, Holy Family, Prince of Peace Lutheran, Poland Presbyterian and Poland United Methodist.
The offering will be donated to Poland Community Food Pantry.
Fellowship will follow the service.
Mr. Grant said all the churches are represented by members who attend, as well as others in the community.
Pastor Reid Lamport of Church of the Rock will deliver the message, “Thanks-GIVING.”
He suggested people not limit being thankful to Thanksgiving Day but “give thanks to God for their safety, health and sustenance” on a daily basis.
“We’ve forgotten what God has done for us,” he said. “He has sustained us as a nation ... we need to show our appreciation by giving thanks.”
Pastor Lamport said the real meaning and significance of Thanksgiving is often lost among the frenzy of food, Black Friday shopping anticipation and football. He said Americans should appreciate Thanksgiving as the opportunity to “look how they’ve been blessed.”
“Sometimes churches have missed the boat about promoting the idea of people caring for one another,” he said.
He cited passages from Acts 2: 44-46, “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart ...”
“If we cared for one another, no one would be in need. We would belong to a spiritual family,” Pastor Lamport said.
The pastor continued that “God will bless those who dedicate their lives in service to others.” That he said follows the example of Christ, who did not come to earth to be served but to serve.
Pastor Lamport said the community Thanksgiving service brings together people of different denominations but who are all “members of the body of Christ.”
“We can do a whole lot more together than being fragmented,” he said.
The Rev. Kristin Stroble of Heritage Presbyterian said the communal service exemplifies “the experience of Christian unity.”
“We’re all one in Christ,” she said, though each denomination has its own traditions.
She said the service also takes a collection of donated food and monetary contributions to benefit Poland Food Pantry based at Poland UMC. It is a joint project among the churches to help Poland residents in need.
Mr. Grant pointed out Thanksgiving has a religious origin. The Pilgrims celebrated a first Thanksgiving after their first harvest in the New World. The colonists had days of prayer to thank God for blessings.
Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It became an official federal holiday during the Civil War in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”